🐠 Steinitz's Prawn Goby (Amblyeleotris steinitzi)
A White Body With Brown Vertical Bands and Mood-Sensitive Blue Spots • A Documented Pistol Shrimp Partnership • A Hardy, Disease-Resistant Species
 
📋 Steinitz's Prawn Goby, also known as the Steinitz Goby or Orange Banded Prawn Goby, has a charming elongated body with prominent eyes, typical of watchman gobies, coloured white with brown vertical bands. A fascinating detail: the entire body is also spotted with small blue spots that intensify with the fish's mood.
It comes from the rubble zones of reefs across the Indian Ocean and Red Sea, inhabiting sandy and rubble substrates near coral reefs. Every Steinitz's Prawn Goby we ship is feeding well.
This species forms a real documented symbiotic partnership with pistol shrimp of the Alpheus genus, particularly the Tiger Pistol Shrimp, in which the shrimp maintains and defends a shared burrow while the goby stands watch, warning its nearly blind partner of approaching predators. It requires feeding several times a day, especially when newly introduced, though this becomes less frequent once it can find natural food within the aquarium. It's fully reef safe, and fairly hardy and disease-resistant, doing best introduced as a small group or pair simultaneously, though it can become territorial toward other blennies, gobies, or dartfish in smaller tanks. It reaches up to 13cm, so a 40L tank suits it well.
 
💡 Highlights
🎨 White Body With Brown Bands and Mood-Sensitive Blue Spots: A charming, distinctive prawn goby
🦐 A Documented Pistol Shrimp Partnership: A real symbiotic relationship with Alpheus species
🌿 Fully Reef Safe: Won't harm corals or invertebrates
💪 Hardy: Fairly disease-resistant once established
🍽️ Needs Frequent Feeding at First: Requires several feedings daily when newly introduced